Phetishboy
Well-known member
Remember that song about the dude who built a car from spare parts he had smuggled out of the factory he worked at in his lunch box? I loved that song when I was a kid.
Anyway, some of you may know that I recently restored a single monitor Playchoice-10 for myself. Well, the manager of my Gym wanted to buy one for his son real bad, but wasn't looking to spend the $1500 I'd need for the one I restored. So I decided to build one for him from spare parts and charge him a quarter of that price. I had a DK cab painted black (with transformer and coin door), a SM motherboard and 5 extra PC-10 carts, a Vs. harness and Vs. control panel, a red tent control panel harness (for buttons 3 & 4), a silver Nintendo power supply and a 3/16" piece of smoked plexi that I had cut for a Nintendo cab a few years back that I never used.
First I needed to add 2 buttons to the Vs. CP to cover the extra 2 buttons needed for the PC-10 system for a total of 8. Now many of you may be saying, but Phetishboy, doesn't the PC-10 system utilize a total of 9 buttons, requiring you to add 3 to the Vs. CP? Well concerned KLOVer, the 9th button would be 'reset', which becomes disabled when the dips on the motherboard are set for freeplay. Why set the dips to freeplay you ask? Because doing so disables the timer, which is:
a. Annoying
2. Not needed
c. I didn't have an extra one anyway
But Phetty, how do you reset the machine now? By pressing Channel Select and Enter at the same time you prick, now just shut up and let me finish. After I populated the CP, I needed to wire it. I used the cp harness from a Red Tent, as it had the correct wires for the extra buttons. Once I finished wiring the CP, I used 'half' a red tent/vs. harness to wire the cab. By half, I mean that all the wires on the solder side of the edge connector were cut off, as they were not gonna be utilized in this single monitor set-up. Once I got it all wired, I hooked it up to test it. Everything seemed to be working.
Next I loaded up the motherboard with the 5 titles we agreed upon. His main choices were Tecmo Bowl and Mike Tyson's Punchout. He also chose Pro Wrestling, Rad Racer and Double Dragon to round out the 5. I made him aware that he does have 5 more slots to fill, and he knows all about eBay, so he should have a fully loaded Playchoice in no time.
Next I needed to make a black paper bezel for the monitor, as this cab had none. I decided to make it 2 inches wider than the inside of the cabinet so that I could bend down an inch wide tab on either side to staple it to the cab. I did this so that it would stay in place, even if the mounting tabs on the face of the monitor let loose over time (which they always seem to). After that, I grabbed the 3/16 inch smoked plexi and masked the center viewing area and sprayed a nice black frame around the outside with Black Krylon Fusion. I sprayed the inside of the bezel, so that it couldn't be scratched or wiped off. It also then cannot be seen through the tint until the monitor is fired up.
Now, since I used a modified Vs. CP in place of the dedicated PC-10 CP, I knew I needed to come up with some way to label the buttons so that he and his son knew how to operate the menu and start up a game. I decided to utilize the dead space on the 2 inch by 22.5 inch black board above the CP by designing a custom instruction sticker that spanned the width of said board. I sent the file off to Rich and other than a mis-cut at the top, causing it to sit slightly crooked, it turned out pretty nice.
Now, I realize that this is not a collector machine as the parts are used and not some are not factory correct, but this guy is not a collector and couldn't care less. He just wanted a nice arcade machine that he and his son could play some of his favorite NES classics on. All I have left is to find or make a marquee, as the one I had purchased never showed up. Here are some pics of the Bezel, CP area and custom sticker (and yes that is a nice big dent in the front of the CP, I DID say that this was built from spare parts):
Anyway, some of you may know that I recently restored a single monitor Playchoice-10 for myself. Well, the manager of my Gym wanted to buy one for his son real bad, but wasn't looking to spend the $1500 I'd need for the one I restored. So I decided to build one for him from spare parts and charge him a quarter of that price. I had a DK cab painted black (with transformer and coin door), a SM motherboard and 5 extra PC-10 carts, a Vs. harness and Vs. control panel, a red tent control panel harness (for buttons 3 & 4), a silver Nintendo power supply and a 3/16" piece of smoked plexi that I had cut for a Nintendo cab a few years back that I never used.
First I needed to add 2 buttons to the Vs. CP to cover the extra 2 buttons needed for the PC-10 system for a total of 8. Now many of you may be saying, but Phetishboy, doesn't the PC-10 system utilize a total of 9 buttons, requiring you to add 3 to the Vs. CP? Well concerned KLOVer, the 9th button would be 'reset', which becomes disabled when the dips on the motherboard are set for freeplay. Why set the dips to freeplay you ask? Because doing so disables the timer, which is:
a. Annoying
2. Not needed
c. I didn't have an extra one anyway
But Phetty, how do you reset the machine now? By pressing Channel Select and Enter at the same time you prick, now just shut up and let me finish. After I populated the CP, I needed to wire it. I used the cp harness from a Red Tent, as it had the correct wires for the extra buttons. Once I finished wiring the CP, I used 'half' a red tent/vs. harness to wire the cab. By half, I mean that all the wires on the solder side of the edge connector were cut off, as they were not gonna be utilized in this single monitor set-up. Once I got it all wired, I hooked it up to test it. Everything seemed to be working.
Next I loaded up the motherboard with the 5 titles we agreed upon. His main choices were Tecmo Bowl and Mike Tyson's Punchout. He also chose Pro Wrestling, Rad Racer and Double Dragon to round out the 5. I made him aware that he does have 5 more slots to fill, and he knows all about eBay, so he should have a fully loaded Playchoice in no time.
Next I needed to make a black paper bezel for the monitor, as this cab had none. I decided to make it 2 inches wider than the inside of the cabinet so that I could bend down an inch wide tab on either side to staple it to the cab. I did this so that it would stay in place, even if the mounting tabs on the face of the monitor let loose over time (which they always seem to). After that, I grabbed the 3/16 inch smoked plexi and masked the center viewing area and sprayed a nice black frame around the outside with Black Krylon Fusion. I sprayed the inside of the bezel, so that it couldn't be scratched or wiped off. It also then cannot be seen through the tint until the monitor is fired up.
Now, since I used a modified Vs. CP in place of the dedicated PC-10 CP, I knew I needed to come up with some way to label the buttons so that he and his son knew how to operate the menu and start up a game. I decided to utilize the dead space on the 2 inch by 22.5 inch black board above the CP by designing a custom instruction sticker that spanned the width of said board. I sent the file off to Rich and other than a mis-cut at the top, causing it to sit slightly crooked, it turned out pretty nice.
Now, I realize that this is not a collector machine as the parts are used and not some are not factory correct, but this guy is not a collector and couldn't care less. He just wanted a nice arcade machine that he and his son could play some of his favorite NES classics on. All I have left is to find or make a marquee, as the one I had purchased never showed up. Here are some pics of the Bezel, CP area and custom sticker (and yes that is a nice big dent in the front of the CP, I DID say that this was built from spare parts):

